 jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | reply to pnh102
Re: Not Too Far Fetched said by pnh102:People pay for their own gas to drive to work too. As long as they are entitled to receive tax breaks for the money they spend on their internet connection, it makes sense. If I used my car for work (not to get to work), as many people in sales tend to do, I would be eligible for tax deductions on fuel purchased and mileage driven. It seems like work from home employees should have the same home office deductions that self-employed, small business owners enjoy.
Now IBM is free to lay off most of their IT support team now that they can hand off the service calls to each employees' own internet service provider.  |
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 bencPremium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
 ·Charter
| said by jmn1207:Now IBM is free to lay off most of their IT support team now that they can hand off the service calls to each employees' own internet service provider. I can see it now. Some employee will have a problem with their ISP. Said employee calls their ISP to complain, but it won't be fixed until Friday (or some day that's a few days into the future).
Then the employee is less productive, and not because they wanted to be lazy either. |
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 pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | reply to jmn1207
said by jmn1207:As long as they are entitled to receive tax breaks for the money they spend on their internet connection, it makes sense. I would imagine that under existing law this is the case. Typically any purchase made with personal funds for work use that isn't compensated by work is tax deductible.
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Blagojevich / Madoff 2012! |
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n2ubp
join:2007-07-13
Middletown, NY | > Typically any purchase made with personal funds for work use that isn't compensated by work is tax deductible.
I think you only get to deduct work expenses if they are more than two percent of your adjusted gross income.
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Scuba2
join:2004-01-13
Under da sea | It's the amount that is greater than 2% of your adjusted gross income and only if you itemized (schedule A ) your deductions ! |
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 MJimLayAKA FlexBaudPremium
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL
kudos:2 | reply to benc
said by benc:said by jmn1207:Now IBM is free to lay off most of their IT support team now that they can hand off the service calls to each employees' own internet service provider. I can see it now. Some employee will have a problem with their ISP. Said employee calls their ISP to complain, but it won't be fixed until Friday (or some day that's a few days into the future). Then the employee is less productive, and not because they wanted to be lazy either. This is why you have a SOHO Connection. I have one and it's only about $20 more a month than regular broadband. I get a 4 hour response time from my ISP, better QOS, No Caps, etc. It's great.
I work from home and every company I've worked for made me pay for my own broadband, computer, etc. I don't mind it as I am going to have broadband anyway regardless of where I work... and I have so many spare computers that it's not an issue throwing one together to use for work only. |
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nitzanPremium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
kudos:2 | reply to Scuba2
said by Scuba2:It's the amount that is greater than 2% of your adjusted gross income and only if you itemized (schedule A ) your deductions ! Exactly. Which means it's NOT tax deductible for 99% of employees.
Not to mention even if you get to deduct it - you still need to pay social security and medicare on the amount, and possibly state income tax. Your employer can just straight-off deduct it as a business expense without all the crap taxes.
This is such a stupid decision. internet service reimbursement costs very little to the employer, and provides a real benefit (and satisfaction) to the worker.
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Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation
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Compare VoIP Provider Rates |
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 joakoPremium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
kudos:5
·Comcast
| reply to jmn1207
said by jmn1207:said by pnh102:People pay for their own gas to drive to work too. As long as they are entitled to receive tax breaks for the money they spend on their internet connection, it makes sense. If I used my car for work (not to get to work), as many people in sales tend to do, I would be eligible for tax deductions on fuel purchased and mileage driven. It seems like work from home employees should have the same home office deductions that self-employed, small business owners enjoy. Now IBM is free to lay off most of their IT support team now that they can hand off the service calls to each employees' own internet service provider. Why? You use your car to "get to work" and that is not deductible. You use your internet connection to "get to your work" I don't feel it should be, either.
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PRescott7-2097 |
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jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | I don't have to take my car to work. It just happens to be the most practical for most people. If my job required me to drive a great number of miles, you can bet that I would expect to be compensated by my employer. Likewise, if my job requires that I have an internet connection and a computer, I expect my employer to compensate me. I get paid for travel expenses when I drive someplace for a work-related function.
Do you have a computer in your office? Did you have to bring your own? I have lots of computer parts in my basement, perhaps I should build a work computer and bring it into my office?
At the very least, it seems like a company such as IBM could look into getting group rates for business class service for the work at home employees. If you are specifically hired to work at home and the rules are specifically outlined before you are hired, I have no problem with that at all. However, if you have been working at home for several years, it does not seem fair to force their employers to cover these expenses. Without any white collar unions, there are no real alternative other than capitulating or quitting. |
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 bubbha
join:2004-03-20
Harrisburg, PA | reply to nitzan
Are you serious?!? 45k people on telecommute at $40 per month for their service is $1.8MIL PER MONTH... that's real money to me! You save on gas money and food by working from home... suck it up and pay your own connection! How many of those people piggyback on that company paid service when you know they would have high speed on their own if the company didn't pay for it or they actually worked at the office? |
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nitzanPremium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
kudos:2 | said by bubbha:Are you serious?!? 45k people on telecommute at $40 per month for their service is $1.8MIL PER MONTH... that's real money to me! You save on gas money and food by working from home... suck it up and pay your own connection! How many of those people piggyback on that company paid service when you know they would have high speed on their own if the company didn't pay for it or they actually worked at the office? Easy. Cut their salary by $40 - case solved.
They still net a better result because $40 after taxes is more like $25. |
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jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | reply to bubbha
said by bubbha:Are you serious?!? 45k people on telecommute at $40 per month for their service is $1.8MIL PER MONTH... that's real money to me! You save on gas money and food by working from home... suck it up and pay your own connection! How many of those people piggyback on that company paid service when you know they would have high speed on their own if the company didn't pay for it or they actually worked at the office? I suppose IBM can just provide an office, phone, and computer for those employees that decide not to work from home anymore? If they need to move closer to the office to make the commute more manageable, will IBM help pay the cost to move?
If they are going to change their work at home policy midstream, they need to provide some options. For IBM, it's just a quick way to make a buck and most employees won't make too much of a fuss about it. Most people want to keep their jobs, and working from home has many benefits that outweigh the lost compensation they once enjoyed.
It's exactly like a company that decided to start charging it's employees for parking outside the office building. It would suck, it wouldn't be right, it might even get it's own news story, but just about everyone would simply pay the $2 each day to park. Just like nearly all of the IBM work at home employees will simply grin and bear it. |
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| The hospital that my wife worked at, until she retired, charged for parking in the hospital facility. |
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jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | said by Austinloop:The hospital that my wife worked at, until she retired, charged for parking in the hospital facility. Did she know about this before she decided to start working there, or did they start demanding money for parking one day, after allowing people to park for free for many years? |
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| Not that it makes a difference, but pay from day 1. It was not really an option to park other than on property due to evening shifts (3 to 11 pm). At least that was the story for 28 years. |
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jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | Every scenario is different, it seems.
My company has an excellent work from home program, but we mention up front that you need your own computer that meets a certain specification, you have to use software compatible with our Citrix client, you need a broadband connection, and you need a working phone. And more details are provided for those interested. Anyone working from home has completely agreed to do so on our terms.
While it varies from one department to another, generally most employees have flexible routines, and can often work from home without any strife from management. Nobody expects to get kickbacks on our internet bill for time spent at home.
In this situation with IBM, it simply appears to be a money grab. Hopefully they will work with any employee that has an expensive business account with their ISP, and will continue to compensate these employees if necessary. It could be a a couple of hundred dollars depending on where the person lives and what type of connection they might require to be productive. |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to MJimLay
Then the company should pay for the difference between a regular home plan and a SOHO plan. Here, that difference would be $25 per month.
I think it'd be a bad idea to kill internet payback entirely; might make people either more unproductive or make them come back to work. Which is much more costly than $25 per month to subsidize an internet connection. |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to jmn1207
Exactly. Unfortunately TIme Warner Cable's business packages (which will be required once residential packages are rendered useless by caps) are freakin' expensive compared to home packages. Or maybe the person has to switch to DSL so their internet doesn't slow down to a crawl due to overcrowded cable lines. So maybe theyhave to pay SpeakEasy $90 a month for a cute little 6/768 DSL connection... |
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| reply to bubbha
said by bubbha:Are you serious?!? 45k people on telecommute at $40 per month for their service is $1.8MIL PER MONTH... that's real money to me! You save on gas money and food by working from home... suck it up and pay your own connection! How many of those people piggyback on that company paid service when you know they would have high speed on their own if the company didn't pay for it or they actually worked at the office? I work from home most of my time and in customers office the rest. If you've ever worked from home you'd realize that most, not all, work from home people end up working longer hours that those in tradional offices. My PRODUCTIVE hours average 12 hours a day since I'm not wasting the average one hour each direction to communte to the local office. (Which doesn't have enough space even if I wanted to go in!) I don't think it's too much to ask for them to cover my DSL @ $35/mo. especially since they have me using it for VoIP for my company line too.
The cost of real estate, phone and network if I were to go to a company office would probably be at least $500/mo. on top of the lost productivity while I'm commuting. |
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| reply to jmn1207
I can see the employee having computer or software issues and call their ISP and demand a repair ticket.Said ISP rolls to their house and determines a PC issue only and bills said employee for service call!With no IT support they (company) is screwed!!! Blahahaha |
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